Global Courant 2023-04-28 04:41:32
The Vermont legislature on Thursday passed reproductive and transgender health care bills with a belated addition to protect access to a drug commonly used in abortions, even as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration withdraws its approval of the pill, mifepristone.
The bills shield providers from disciplinary action for providing legally protected abortion and transgender medical services. Lawmakers recently updated medical abortion to fit the definition of legally protected reproductive health care, and believe the state is the first to do so.
In the identical bills passed by the House and Senate, “reproductive health care” also includes “medications approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for termination of pregnancy beginning January 1, 2023, regardless of the medication’s current FDA approval status.” .”
VERMONT WEIGH LEGAL PROTECTIONS FOR Abortion Providers, TRANS PROCEDURES
Last week, the US Supreme Court upheld women’s access to the drug and overturned lower court restrictions as a lawsuit continues. The judges have granted emergency requests from the Biden administration and New York-based Danco Laboratories, maker of mifepristone, to appeal a lower Texas court ruling that would reverse the FDA’s approval of mifepristone.
If the FDA approval is withdrawn, the drug companies will no longer be able to market the drug, said Sen. Virginia Lyons, a Democrat from Vermont.
The Vermont legislature has voted to establish legal protections for transgender procedures and the abortion-inducing drug mifepristone. (AP Photo/Lisa Rathke, File)
“But production can still take place and they can be bought for use by pharmacists or suppliers. So it’s still available, but what this does is it says, with or without FDA approval, that this drug is available for people in the state of Vermont, and that’s a big problem,” Lyons said.
The FDA said Thursday it had no immediate comment.
Greer Donley, an associate professor at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law and an expert on abortion law, said states cannot allow drugs that the federal government bans. But that doesn’t mean the federal government would enforce its ban if states go their own way.
VERMONT SENATE GIVES BILL PROTECTING ABORTION PROVIDERS, TRANS PROCEDURES FROM LEGAL ACTION
The US has generally not intervened when states have allowed medical cannabis, even though it is not federally legal. Lawsuits are pending against states that have banned abortion pills.
“The question of whether federal food and drug law is not just the floor but the ceiling is a very hot and unresolved question in food and drug law,” Donley said.
Earlier this month, Vermont Attorney General Charity Clark joined a multistate coalition challenging a Texas federal judge’s decision to withdraw FDA approval of mifepristone. Abortion opponents filed a lawsuit in Texas in November alleging that the original FDA approval of mifepristone 23 years ago and subsequent amendments were flawed.
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Women who want to terminate their pregnancy in the first 10 weeks without more invasive surgical abortion can use mifepristone along with misoprostol. The FDA has relaxed the terms of use of mifepristone over the years, including allowing it to be sent through the mail in states that allow access.
